Description

The 2016b release of the tz code and data is available. It reflects the following changes, which were either circulated on the tz mailing list or are relatively minor technical or administrative changes. A last-minute note: some 2016b data entries cause zic implementations derived from tz releases 2005j through 2015e to issue warnings like "time zone abbreviation differs from POSIX standard (+03)". These warnings should not otherwise affect zic's output and can safely be ignored on today's platforms, as the warnings refer to a restriction in POSIX.1-1988 that was removed in POSIX.1-2001. One way to suppress the warnings is to upgrade to zic derived from tz releases 2015f and later.

Changes affecting future time stamps

New zones Europe/Astrakhan and Europe/Ulyanovsk for Astrakhan and
Ulyanovsk Oblasts, Russia, both of which will switch from +03 to +04 on
2016-03-27 at 02:00 local time. They need distinct zones since their
post-1970 histories disagree. New zone Asia/Barnaul for Altai Krai and
Altai Republic, Russia, which will switch from +06 to +07 on the same date
and local time. Also, Asia/Sakhalin moves from +10 to +11 on 2016-03-27
at 02:00. (Thanks to Alexander Krivenyshev for the heads-up, and to
Matt Johnson and Stepan Golosunov for followup.)

As a trial of a new system that needs less information to be made up,
the new zones use numeric time zone abbreviations like "+04"
instead of invented abbreviations like "ASTT".

Palestine's spring-forward transition on 2016-03-26 is at 01:00, not 00:00.
(Thanks to Hannah Kreitem.) Guess future transitions will be March's last
Saturday at 01:00, not March's last Friday at 24:00.

Changes affecting past time stamps

Europe/Chisinau observed DST during 1990, and switched from +04 to
+03 at 1990-05-06 02:00, instead of switching from +03 to +02.
(Thanks to Stepan Golosunov.)

1991 abbreviations in Europe/Samara should be SAMT/SAMST, not
KUYT/KUYST. (Thanks to Stepan Golosunov.)

Changes to code

tzselect's diagnostics and checking, and checktab.awk's checking,
have been improved. (Thanks to J William Piggott.)

tzcode now builds under MinGW. (Thanks to Ian Abbott and Esben Haabendal.)

tzselect now tests Julian-date TZ settings more accurately.
(Thanks to J William Piggott.)

Changes to commentary

Comments in zone tables have been improved. (Thanks to J William Piggott.)

tzselect again limits its menu comments so that menus fit on a
24x80 alphanumeric display.

A new web page tz-how-to.html. (Thanks to Bill Seymour.)

In the Theory file, the description of possible time zone abbreviations in
tzdata has been cleaned up, as the old description was unclear and
inconsistent. (Thanks to Alain Mouette for reporting the problem.)

The 2016c release of the tz code and data is available. Its most urgent
change is for Asia/Baku, where the update takes effect this weekend.

This release reflects the following changes, which were either
circulated on the tz mailing list or are relatively minor technical or
administrative changes:

Changes affecting future time stamps

Azerbaijan no longer observes DST. (Thanks to Steffen Thorsen.)

Chile reverts from permanent to seasonal DST. (Thanks to Juan
Correa for the heads-up, and to Tim Parenti for corrections.)
Guess that future transitions are August's and May's second
Saturdays at 24:00 mainland time. Also, call the period from
2014-09-07 through 2016-05-14 daylight saving time instead of
standard time, as that seems more appropriate now.

Changes affecting past time stamps

Europe/Kaliningrad and Europe/Vilnius changed from +03/+04 to
+02/+03 on 1989-03-26, not 1991-03-31. Europe/Volgograd changed
from +04/+05 to +03/+04 on 1988-03-27, not 1989-03-26.
(Thanks to Stepan Golosunov.)

Changes to commentary

Several updates and URLs for historical and proposed Russian changes.
(Thanks to Stepan Golosunov, Matt Johnson, and Alexander Krivenyshev.)

The 2016d release of the tz code and data is available. It reflects the
following changes, which were either circulated on the tz mailing list
or are relatively minor technical or administrative changes:

Changes affecting future time stamps

America/Caracas switches from -0430 to -04 on 2016-05-01 at 02:30.
(Thanks to Alexander Krivenyshev for the heads-up.)

Asia/Magadan switches from +10 to +11 on 2016-04-24 at 02:00.
(Thanks to Alexander Krivenyshev and Matt Johnson.)

New zone Asia/Tomsk, split off from Asia/Novosibirsk. It covers
Tomsk Oblast, Russia, which switches from +06 to +07 on 2016-05-29
at 02:00. (Thanks to Stepan Golosunov.)

Changes affecting past time stamps

New zone Europe/Kirov, split off from Europe/Volgograd. It covers
Kirov Oblast, Russia, which switched from +04/+05 to +03/+04 on
1989-03-26 at 02:00, roughly a year after Europe/Volgograd made
the same change. (Thanks to Stepan Golosunov.)

Russia and nearby locations had daylight-saving transitions on
1992-03-29 at 02:00 and 1992-09-27 at 03:00, instead of on
1992-03-28 at 23:00 and 1992-09-26 at 23:00. (Thanks to Stepan
Golosunov.)

Many corrections to historical time in Kazakhstan from 1991
through 2005. (Thanks to Stepan Golosunov.) Replace Kazakhstan's
invented time zone abbreviations with numeric abbreviations.